Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC’s Tonight Show — and the severing of a 22-year relationship with the network — O’Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. The “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” tour was O’Brien’s answer to a contractual stipulation that banned his appearance on television, radio and the Internet for six months following his last show.

Filmmaker Rodman Flender’s resulting documentary, CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “half-assed show” (his words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base.

At times angry, mostly hilarious, O’Brien works out his feelings about the very-public separation with comedy and rockabilly music, engaging in bits with on-stage guests such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jim Carrey, duetting with Jack White and sweating out manic Elvis Presley covers with his band and back-up singers.

We see a comic who does not stop — performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O’Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large (New York, Las Vegas) and remote (Enoch, Alberta) to fill a void within himself?

"Unlike Charlie Sheen, O’Brien knows when to check his rage, and he doesn’t just wing his live show. He’s an accomplished guitar player and not-bad singer — as fans of his show already know — and he and the gang labour to deliver a concert that’s worth watching, and also paying for."- THE TORONTO STAR

"O’Brien had a huge reservoir of public goodwill after the way NBC (and Jay Leno) treated him, and he comes nowhere near depleting it here. Even at his grumpiest and most politically incorrect, the man is funny. “It’s almost over,” someone tells him as the tour winds down. O’Brien snaps back: “That’s what they said to Anne Frank.”"- THE NATIONAL POST

"By the time O’Brien stops in at Harvard for his 25-year class reunion – where he kills time before a talent show with an impromptu green-room jam session – you’ll be as breathless and excited as he is to see what happens next."- NOW MAGAZINE

"For you fans who can't get enough of Conan O'Brien on his late-night TBS show, and who are game to revisit the tumultuous time when NBC's squeeze play put him out of a job while reinstating Jay Leno at "The Tonight Show," a new documentary film should be right up your alley."- YAHOO NEWS

"...a greatly humanizing portrait of someone that many fans would consider to be almost larger than life. It’s the kind of tour film that one rarely sees on screen anymore, and in that respect, CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP is quite admirable."- CRITICIZE THIS!

"When Jay Leno decided to repossess The Tonight Show after tanking in prime time, Conan O’Brien found himself on a forced vacation from broadcast media. So he went on a multi-city tour of live performances, and director Rodman Flender (Leprechaun 2) tagged along for the ride."- NOW MAGAZINE

"Conan O’Brien teasing with one-night stand"- IN MOVIES

"The lost six months in which Conan O’Brien disappeared from the broadcast realm are detailed in a film that will play in Winnipeg for one night only next month."- WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

"For long time fans of CoCo this film is a must see. Watching Conan in his truest raw form uncensored by television is the funniest I've ever seen him. Even casual fans and people only mildly familiar with him should be able to enjoy the ride just as much if not more. Unlike most documentaries, it never slows down or gets boring, the pace is fast moving but covers everything it set out to do. Most importantly giving the fans what they want, Conan doing what he does best, entertaining."- THINK MCFLY, THINK

"You can't keep a good man down. Or apparently, a good talk show host."- MOVIEFONE

“Can’t Stop” showcases O’Brien string dancing along that line like a weird marionette, imploring fans to find the weird marionette in themselves."- JOEL CRARY

"... an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “half-assed show” (the star’s own words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base."- DOCSPACE

"Along the way, the film provides fresh insights into the psyche of O'Brien, who, ever since landing on the air at NBC in 1993, has been considered one of TV's nicest, most levelheaded personalities."- MACLEAN'S